Lea woke up abruptly on Monday morning excited to begin her day at work. Instead of making her own coffee this morning she had decided to stop and pick some up at Starbucks on the way to work. She got dressed for the day, grabbed her keys, and got into her car.

Turning the key, an unfriendly clicking noise screeched out. It wasn't turning over. Crap. What was she supposed to do now? Dianna wasn't shooting this morning and the sun wasn't even up. Leaving her to the only other number that she could think of, the only other person she knew would be awake and help her.

*ring ring*

"Hello?" Cory answered on the other line. Sounds of city traffic echoed in the background.

"Hey, have you already gotten to set yet?" Lea said frustrated.

"Just leaving now, what's up babe?" he said sensing Lea's tone.

"My car wont turn over, I think it's the transmission. Do you think you could give me a ride to work?" Sitting in her car with her head slumped on her steering wheel, Lea could not imagine how the day could get any worse.

"Sure, I'll be there in a minute, just hold tight!" He said, hanging up the phone after a quick thank you from Lea.

He pulled into her driveway and spotted Lea sitting against the garage door. She got into the passenger seat and looked over to Cory's smiling face. "I got you something," he said waiting for Lea to realize what it was.

"Thank you for picking me up," Lea said, still in a bad mood as she buckled her seatbelt. It was then that she smelled it. The fresh smell of the coffee that she desperately wanted. "Is that for me?" She looked at the coffee cup sitting in the cup holder and then up to Cory.

"Yeah I figured you could something to pick you up. Well, in addition to me." He said looking forward at the road.

"You are perfect, you know that?" She said with a smile. He had made her day better already. "I'll just deal with that bad luck charm later, what's more important now is how are we going to explain going to work together?"

Cory looked over at Lea, "you're worrying about nothing. Your car broke and you needed a ride. Friends," he winked, "give other friends rides."

She giggled, "I guess you're right. No staring at my ass on set though, friends don't do that."

"Geez," Cory joked, "I can't even appreciate how beautiful my girlfriend is at work? Rough."

She pushed his arm lightly, "They'll know eventually, then you can 'appreciate' all you want." The smile had not left her face since he put it there. They pulled up to set and parked. Walking into set, Lea had to cross her arms to make sure she didn't accidently hold Cory's hand that was temptingly dangling in between them.

Mark was under the weather over the weekend and canceled their lunch date, leaving Lea wondering if she was going to see him at work later. Around lunch time, Dianna arrived to set and bee-lined straight to Lea who was talking to another cast member named Heather.

"I need to borrow you Lee, I believe we have some things to talk about," Dianna said rapidly, leaving Lea to tell Heather she'd catch up with her later. "Spill," Dianna blurted out in excitement, once they had reached a quiet corner.

"It was incredible Dee, one of the most romantic dates I've ever been on. Seriously It was absolutely perfect!" Lea tried her best to keep her voice down so that no one could overhear.

"I'm so happy for you Lee! You have to tell me the rest of the details later, I'm due on set." Dianna smiled in satisfaction that her plan had succeeded in getting them together.

"One last thing Dee, I'm telling you because you're my best friend and I could never keep anything from you, but you can't tell anyone. I know its fast, but… he asked me to be his girlfriend last night and I just have this good feeling about things this time." Lea's words spilled out of her mouth.

Dianna wrapped her arms around Lea. "All that's important is that you're happy, which makes me happy too." She released her friend and hurried off to set.

With time to spare, since she was done filming for the day and was just waiting till Cory finished to give her a ride back, Lea hung out in her trailer. Within ten minutes someone came knocking on her door.

Pleasantly surprised by her visitor, she knew him visiting her looked suspicious. "What are you doing here Cory!" she said as she hurried him inside and shut the door. He wrapped his arms around her, finally getting to hold her without worrying about others seeing. The warmth of the hug was just what Lea needed, being in his arms felt amazing. Releasing her, he answered her question. "I've wanted to do that all day," Cory said smiling down at Lea.

"I needed that," she said returning the smile. "but what if someone saw you coming to my trailer!"

"I was sneaky," he said jokingly, "now, lets go fix your car problem."

Lea sighed, "I don't even know what to do. I'll have to call a stupid tow truck to bring it to a mechanic and who knows how expensive that will be." She covered her face with her hands not wanting to think about her car.

Cory took the opportunity to wrap his arms around her again, so that her arms were pressed against his chest. "Maybe not," he said trying to comfort her. "I know a thing or two about cars, so I'll take a look at it first."

Lea uncovered her face to look at Cory's. "My man knows how to fix a car?" she said biting her tongue while smiling.

"Oh I'm an expert," he teased, "and since you're my beautiful girlfriend, my services wont cost you a dime… or actually just keep that smile on your face and that will be more than enough of a payment."

Laughing at her dorky boyfriend, she realized how much she appreciated having him to help her. Teasing him back, Lea bit her lower lip, "I'll make it up to you somehow," she said as she winked.

He lifted her up and inch off the ground, tickling her sides as she was in the air. "Stop it! STOP CORY PLEASE," Lea said in uncontrollable laughter. He let her down gently.

"Should we get going then?" Cory said moving towards the door.

"Whatever my mechanic wishes, but I'll go first to make sure no ones looking!" Lea said as she darted in front of Cory to get to the door first.

They made it to the car undetected and speeded to Lea's place. Her car was parked on the street outside of her house.

"Let's have a look shall we?" Cory said as he lifted the hood and stripped down to his undershirt and jeans.

Lea couldn't help but admire his muscular arms and how extremely sexy he looked working with tools. Grease covered his hands as he inspected the motor. After awhile he finally spoke up, "I think I found the issue, you need a new spark plug babe. Easy to buy, and I'll put it in to save you the cost of manual labor."

"Thank you so much," Lea said relieved it was just a simple fix.

"Now come give your man a smooch," he said holding out his greasy hands teasingly. "Ew no! Get those greasy hands away from me!" She said backing up as Cory took a step towards her.

It was then when it happened. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a car racing down the street towards them. Cory grabbed Lea's arm and pulled it in to him, away from the street. Lea, caught off guard, was thrown off balance while being pulled out of the way of the car. The grease on Cory's hand made his grip on her too slippery to hang on.

Her arm slipped out of Cory's hand as she fell to the ground aside of her car, smacking her head on the curb. He looked down mortified, "LEA… LEA are you okay," he kneeled taking her in his arms, panicking at the sight of the bleeding wound on the side of her head. She wasn't responding.

Cory scrambled to dig his phone out of his pocket to dial 911 for an ambulance. His hands were now covered in a mixture of grease and Lea's blood. Tears flooded down his face, "Lea its going to be alright, help is coming sweetie just stay with me. Please Lea, I'm right here. Just hang in there," His voice cracked as he spoke.

He road in the ambulance with her to the hospital when it arrived. His whole body shook at the sight of Lea's unconscious body on the stretcher. Sitting in the waiting room shaken, his body was paralyzed in fear. Dianna arrived in a matter of minutes after a traumatized call from Cory.

"How is she doing?" Dianna said rushing in to the waiting room.

"They haven't told me yet, Dianna what am I going to do? What if she doesn't make it through this?" He buried his face in his palms.

She sat next to him and touched his hand, pulling it away from his face. "It's not your fault Cory."

"YES IT IS, I should have had a better grip on her!" he said shouting and standing up.

"YOU SAVED HER FROM BEING HIT BY A CAR CORY," she shouted back as she also stood and then quieted her voice, "she wouldn't have survived that."

Dianna tried to reach out, putting her arms around Cory until he finally gave up trying to be strong and stopped resisting the hug. Cory pulled Dianna in closer, squeezing her in the embrace as he let the tears drain down onto his face.

They let go of each other and Cory wiped his face, trying to dry away the tears. "I know it sounds crazy, because we just began dating and I haven't known her for long… but I just… just being with her is just… she's just…" He could not figure out how to express his feelings, much less form words anymore.

"Cory, I know. And trust me when I tell you that she's crazy about you too. I've never seen her so happy."

He let out a pitiful half smile as the attending nurse came out to talk to them. She led them into the room to see Lea. She was lying there, head bandaged and eyes closed not moving, but she was breathing.

"She appears to have sustained a pretty severe concussion," the lady began to tell them, "but we wont know more about the severity until she wakes up." After a few more minor details about her condition, the nurse left Dianna and Cory alone in the room. They both stared at Lea from the sides of the bed in silence.

"I've got to go call her parents and some other people," Dianna said sadly as she made her way to the door, "I'll be back soon."

Cory pulled up a chair next to Lea's bed and held her hand. The tears dripped off his face as he tried to talk to her.

"It's me Lea, it's Cory. I'm… I'm so sorry," he sniffled, "You need to wake up okay? I know we've only know each other for a short time and I just got the courage to ask you out, but I'm absolutely crazy about you Lea. You're unlike any girl I've ever been with and its killing me to see you like this. Please Lea… Please." He could not control his breathing anymore as he began hyperventilating and crying harder.

Her face did not move an inch, as he looked at the bandages covering her wound around her skull. Picking up her hand in his, he kissed it lightly before setting it back down beside her. Joining his own hands together, Cory did the only other thing he could do: pray.